USPS 035-740The Heart of the Arkansas River Valley for a Century

ATKINS (POPE COUNTY) ARKANSAS 72823WEDNESDAY, October 1, 2008 — NO. 46 ONE HUNDRED AND thirteenth YEAR

inside The Chronicle

Opinions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Church . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5School ... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6sPORTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 ,8 ,9 Legals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 10Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1

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See Pottsville page 11

See Hector on page 11

Atkins Homecoming Queens will be holding a reunion at the homecoming game Oct. 3. Please contact Karen Nahlen Ray at 641-7552 for more information.

Homecoming queens reunion planned Oct. 3

The Atkins High School Class of 1983 will hold its 25th reunion Friday, Oct. 3, with dinner start-ing at 5 p.m. at El Parian in Atkins followed by the Atkins football game, with seating in a reserved area. For more information, please contact Ladd Shannon at 479-886-1959 or Joe Duvall at 479-641-2500.

Class of ‘83to have 25th

Winner of the arkansas press association general excellence award

The Atkins Peewee Basketball sign-ups will be held Saturday, Oct. 4, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Atkins Middle School gym. Grades 3-6 are eligible to sign-up. For more information call Greg Harris at 858-8458.

Basketball sign ups Saturday

Thursday, Oct. 2 — Atkins Lions Club, noon, First United Methodist Church, visitors wel-come

Thursday, Oct. 2 — People for a Better Atkins (PBA), 7 p.m., Depot

Thursday, Oct. 2 — Pope County Quorum Court, 6 p.m., County Courthouse

Tuesday, Oct. 7 — Atkins Planning Commission, 7 p.m., City Hall

Atkins City Water customers:Monday, Oct. 6

Put out your red bags and red bins of recyclables to

be picked up

2008 Atkins High School Homecoming Royalty — From left: top, Senior Maid Morgan Smart, daughter of Scott and Shannon Smart; Queen Karisa Russell, daughter of Jeff and Sandy Russell; Senior Maid Kayla Stubbs, daughter of Constance Stubbs and Alan Stubbs; (bottom): Sophomore Maid Kang Do Vang, daughter of Troy and Taylor Vang; Junior Maid Heather Autry, daughter of Beth and David Lee and Russell and Tanya Autry; Junior Maid Marlie Shannon, daughter of Kenny and Elner Shannon; Sophomore Maid Molly Gibson, daughter of Howard and Lisa Gibson. The Homecoming pep rally on Friday afternoon will begin at 2:10 at the high school gym and will be followed by the parade at 2:40. The coronation of the queen will begin at 6:30 p.m. at Lemley Field. The Atkins Red Devils will play the Mountain View Yellowjackets at 7.

Red Devils win conference opener

See Page 7

Atkins High School science teacher James Dye is feeling good about the science curricu-lum at Atkins since he found out the new earth science class he created is approved by the state as an elective that counts as one of the three required science courses.

Atkins is the first school in Arkansas that can offer earth science as one of the required science credits. The earth sci-ence class is more like geology, in contrast to the environmental science class, which deals with organisms and their interaction with the rest of the environ-ment.

Dye said he created the course because he had been wanting to expand the science offerings in Atkins. The school offered phys-ical science and biology (both required) and environmental science, physics, chemistry and human anatomy as electives that could be counted as a third science credit. He began work-ing on the earth science class about two years ago and has

been writing and fine-tuning the course plan since then to get it approved.

Dye said his first submis-sion to the state department was rejected as not rigorous enough, and he credits the help of Cathy Mackey of the state department with giving him the help he needed to get the plan accepted.

He also said he appreciated the support and encouragement of Robert Travis, high school prin-cipal, and Supt. Boyce Watkins. If you ask him, James Dye will show you the 25-page approval application that he wrote more than once.

The earth science class has already been an elective at Atkins since last school year, but now it will fulfill the science requirement for graduation. Dye shows a lot of enthusiasm about the class and described how the class has been conducting a recycling service for the school system, recycling cardboard, plastic, newspapers, office paper, etc. The program has enlisted the help of many people to redis-tribute the items to be reused.

Dye said he has requested a donation of several GPS devices from the Garmin company for the class to use and has ordered the new text books now approved. He also has planned a trip for the students to Blanchard Springs Cavern as part of the instruction.

New certification expands AHS students’ science possibilities

James Dye

Two local men were arrested Friday, Sept. 26 and one Satur-day, Sept. 27, in connection with several area burglaries. Prop-erty valued at approximately $32,000 was recovered after information from the suspects led to the location of the prop-erty.

The three subjects are sus-pects in other area breaking or entering crimes and information is still being gathered.

The three subjects, Shawn Crowe, Jeremy Cates and Jeremy

Bushling, went before Judge Don Bourne on Monday at the Pope County Detention Center. Bond was set at $100,000 for Crowe and Cates and $50,000 for Bushling.

Sgt. Bill McGlothlin, who arrested Cates and Bushling testified, along with Lt. Aaron Duvall, as to probable cause. The property was seized by Sgt. McGlothlin and Lt. Shane Jones. The property has been processed and will be released by Lt. Aaron Duvall to the owners this week.

Three arrested in burglaries

By Benita Drew “We are about to be quaran-

tined,” County Extension Agent Phil Simms warned the Potts-ville City Council at its recent meeting. He spoke to the council about the “serious ramifications to businesses,” as well as indi-viduals, if the fire ant population is not controlled in Pope County soon.

He said fire ants have no natural enemies in the country, since they are not native to here. Brought to the United States in the 1940s via Mobile Bay, they steadily spread to Arkansas by the 1960s. Once the popula-tion reaches a certain level, the state Plant Board, governed by the USDA, will quarantine the county. Last year, Yell county was quarantined.

“If we are quarantined, the stuff brought from other quaran-

tined areas will contain fire ants. When it flows freely, the popula-tion grows.” Products that may carry the ants, such as dirt, sod, hay and plants, will no longer be legally sold to non-quarantined areas. Simms said he recently noticed sod being laid in the downtown historic district of Russellville. He asked the driver where the sod came from, and he responded Yell county. Simms reported the incident and the sod farm owner was fined $1,000 and the driver received a warning for transporting the product across county line from a quarantined area to one that was not. He said the driver could have been fined as well but was given a warning because he was unaware of the law.

Simms said many people are

Quarantine threat discussed at Pottsville

The Hector City Council accepted the only bid on its old police car, a 1994 Crown Victoria, from Constable Bill Parks, at its monthly meeting Thursday.

Mayor Martha Owens reported that the new patrol car, a 2008 Impala, is outfitted for use and in service. A JAG grant is being used for the equipment.

The council also approved a Pope County Hazard Mitigation

Plan. It will take effect when all schools and cities adopt it.

Aaron Duvall spoke to the council about his candidacy for Pope County Sheriff.

Members present were Jeane Hull, Harold Tripp, Eddie Coffman, council members, Mayor Martha Owens and City Clerk Billy Blalack.

Information for this article is from the official city council minutes.

Hector sells police car

About 20 teachers, board mem-bers and school patrons attended a report to the public from the Hector schools at the school caf-eteria Tuesday, Sept. 16.

The reports were sum-marized by school secretary Michelle Brown. These are some excerpts.

Superintendent Karen Smith introduced the members of the board. She also thanked all those present at the meeting for taking the time to attend the meeting.

Smith gave a brief update on the progress of the construction projects. She stated that the

Special Education Building was complete and the teachers and students were settling in. The Multi-Purpose Building was a little behind schedule due to rain but was still set to be completed by the end of January 2009.

Smith gave a report on the status of the Facilities Master Plan. The Master Plan that was submitted in February, 2008 was approved. The plan includes changing out and upgrading sev-eral heating and air-conditioning units campus wide.

Hector school reports to public Sept. 16

By Van A. Tyson The summer reading pro-

gram was a big success, the Pope County Library board was told at its monthly meeting Wednesday afternoon, Sept. 17.

Judy Mays, library director, said 1,465 children participated, including 999 in Russellville, 213 in Atkins, 180 in Dover and 73 in Hector. She said the Intro-duction to Genealogy was also a big success with 47 attending.

The next book club meeting will be Oct. 9 at 6:30 p.m. in Heritage Hall, to discuss Lunatic Cafe’ by Laurell K. Hamilton.

A new circulation desk and other furniture are installed in the main library, with some furnitures and shelving still to

arrive. Most of the Russellville branch was painted and the Dover library is being painted and the carpet replaced.

She also reported that there is a new server in the Genealogy Department for pictures and that she was pleased with the use of the web page, with 3,439 visitors and 7,060 page loads, includ-ing visitors from California and the Philippines. The most-used pages are in genealogy.

She said the library would have a booth at the Warrior’s Day celebration at the Hughes Center last Saturday.

The Friends of the Library book sale will be on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9, 10 and 11, at Heritage Hall (the

restored old library building). The times are 5-8 p.m. Thurs-

day, 9 a.m. until 8 p.m. Friday, and 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Saturday. Hardbacks will be $1 and paper-back, 50 cents.

All board members were pres-ent, including, Connie Zimmer, chairman, Karen Womack, Car-olyn McWilliams, Alta Cheek and Jeanie Gray.

Usage in July totaled 28,205. The branch totals were:

BRANCH adult juv. otherAtkins 1,163 1,545 186Dover 2,011 2,089 236Hector 966 563 187Bkmobile 118 80 30Russ’vlle 8,511 8,081 2,439TOTAL 12,769 12,358 3,078

Summer reading success at library

Civil War prisons and their impact on Arkansas will be the subject of the Pope County Historical Association meeting Friday, Oct. 10, at the St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center caf-eteria in Russellville.

John Stroud will present the program. It will be include infor-

mation about his ancestors who were in these prisons, especially the Rock Island prison. His great grandfather Lt. Cornelius Snider was a civil war prisoner.

No reservations are needed for the meal, which begins at 6 p.m. The meeting, at 7, is free and open to the public.

History meeting subject will be Civil War prisons

The Atkins School Board passed a budget for the 2008-09 school year at a called meeting Thursday night of last week.

The budgeted expenses by category followed by the actual amounts spent in 2007-08 are listed as follows:Teacher Salary: $3,076,293.01 [$3,843,483.90]Operating Fund: $3,840,030.05 [$3,078,704.05]Building Fund: $4,043,959.00 [$314,963.74]Debt Service: $217,356.00 [$226,954.00]Capital Outlay: $2,458.72 [-0-]Federal Grants: $804,222.39 [$779,264.44]Activity: -0- [$168,315.92]Food Service: $446,581.54 [$454,127.26]

There is no state requirement to include the activity fund in the budget, which explains the zero expenditure listed.

The board also approved the Arkansas Comprehensive School Improvement Plan ACSIP for the 2008-09 year. This plan concern-ing the use of federal and state restricted funds, is designed to show curriculum improvement procedures.

Atkins School Board passes budget

October 10, 2008, is the dead-line for paying 2007 Pope County real estate, personal property and improvement district taxes.

Pope County Tax Collector Rita Chandler said all mail with a post-mark of Oct. 10 will be accepted. Checks may be mailed to Rita Chandler, Pope County Tax Col-lector, 100 West Main Street, Rus-sellville, AR 72801. All checks must have a valid address, phone number and date of birth on them.

Those with questions should

call the Collector’s Office at 479-968-7016.

Other methods of payment include bringing cash to the office on the second floor of the Pope County Courthouse or paying with a major credit card. Payments may be deposited in the drop box located on the north side drive-thru of the Courthouse.

Online payments will be accepted until midnight on Oct. 10. The web address is www.pope.countyservice.net.

Tax deadline approaches

Library book sale

The Friends of the Library book sale will be on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 9, 10 and 11, at Heritage Hall (the restored old library building).

The times are 5-8 p.m. Thurs-day, 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, and 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. Saturday. Hardbacks will be $1 and paper-back, 50 cents.

The Atkins Athletic Booster Club will have a chicken plate at the concession at the Senior High football game Friday night. The plate is $3 and will have a chicken sandwich, chips and drink. All food was donated by Atkins Prepared Foods. They will start serving at 5 p.m.

Chicken dinner at ball game

Point Remove church celebrates 175th anniversary

The Point Remove Primi-tive Baptist Church will cel-ebrate its 175th anniversary Saturday, Oct. 18, at its current location at 510 N. Knoxville Ave., Russellville. The church was formed on Point Remove Creek in eastern Pope County, moved to Atkins, and then to Russellville.

The event, from noon until 5 p.m., will include free food, music, games and horse and buggy rides in a “block party,” celebration. The church is just north of the Hughes Center.

A more complete article will be published next week.